Beef Battle: $400 Wagyu Beef VS $40 Beef Brisket

If I can eat only one meat in my whole life, it will be a hard battle between beef or chicken. I am a total lamb lover but I can't bear even to think about eating lamb every single day in every single meal. But for beef and chicken, I think I can deal with it. Last week, I happened to experience two different styles of beef. All I could say is THANK GOD I am not a vegetarian. 

My friend and I planned to go to Iroha, a Japanese restaurant famous for its grilled beef in TST, a month ago. Without making a reservation in advance, we clearly had no patience to wait for ten tables and left with disappointment. With prior experience, I made a reservation this time and visited the restaurant with my two long-time-no-see friends, Johnny ,whom I met from dish photo shoot, and Lilian, who is a chinese dish recipe writer. 

Premium Assorted Meat (salted Wagyu togue, thick sliced prime salted outside skirt, diced sirloin steak, selected rib eye beef, selected roast sauced beef) $530

We started off having the premium assorted beef set (above). Five different parts of beef, five different enjoyment. Grilling the beef yourself is fun, in the sense that you can see how the beef looks like in raw, then how it turns brown and how hot and good it tastes right from the grill. It makes the dining experience complete. I know for some of you, it sounds completely bad to say I really like beef tongue. But I am telling you - it really tasted awesome! But the best was the diced sirloin steak (the middle one). After it was grilled (DON'T OVERCOOK IT!), you put it in your mouth. It just melt in your mouth with strong flavor of beef with rich beef juice. It felt like heaven. Mmmmmmmmmmm. 

Grilling the tongue. I know this caption sounds so wicked about tongue. But it tastes so nice that you will completely ignore it's tongue.

Ya, I know, it's expensive. The $530 assorted beef can hardly fill your stomach. They are just teases. You never get enough and you always want more. That's why we further ordered one Assorted Japanese Wagyu, one Grilled Pork Neck with Citron Pepper and one Seafood Pancake. When you feel like, "ya, I think we start to get enough", that's the time you will be in the situation of "Oh fuck, I think I just got broke by eating five slices of beef." Anyhow, it's worth it if you want to treat yourself nice once in a while. 

Assorted Japanese Wagyu (wagyu karubi 6 slices, medium fatty karubi 4 slices, karubi backbone 2 pieces) $300

Besides beef, another dish I recommend will be the Grilled Pork Neck with Citron Pepper. I am not a fan of pork at all as pork itself is not a tasty meat. But here, given the premium black pork and marinade of citron pepper, the pork neck was so soft and rich. The citron pepper also brought the taste of pork to another level of sophistication with different layers of tastes. 

The final bill was HK$1200 for three persons. Well, a little bit more than I expected. (I know it states clearly in the menu and you kind of know how much you will finally pay. But I always have a stupid subconscious to tend to think, "Maybe it will cost less when the bill arrives...") Still, still, still, it was a bliss to discover the beauty of food on its superiority of ingredients. 

Grilled pork neck with citron pepper $95

Another night, I visited another famous local restaurant which is famous for its beef soup - the Kau Kee  Restaurant in Central. Don't underestimate this little restaurant. It had a long history for its specialized beef; it was in a lot of TV and newspaper interviews; and there were always soooo many people coming in and out for its beef brisket. Kevin and I went there on Friday night at around 830pm. We squeezed into the place and found two seats (sharing tables with random strangers), ordering two bowls of beef brisket with noodles in clear broth. 

Kau Kee Beef Brisket with rice noodle $30ish

There is a reason they got famous. The beef was soooooo soft with strong beef flavor. The broth was clear but not plain. A simple bowl can include such a complex taste that you can feel the dedication of the chef. For such a beef brisket, the chef will need to wake up in early morning to prepare so to get such a soft texture and strong taste that fills throughout the whole beef brisket. That is another beauty of food - even for a bowl costing less than $40, the chef is making the best out of it. And as a foodie, I chose my best way to enjoy the beauty of it by eating all of it and eating it out loud. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. 

1/ Where: Iroha
Address: 1/F, Cameron Plaza, 23 Cameron Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Opening hour: Mon - Sun, 12nn-3pm, 6pm-12 midnight
Tel: 2311 4700


2/ Where: Kau Kee Restaurant
Address: G/F, 21 Gough Street, Central, Hong Kong
Opening hour: Mon - Sat, 1230pm - 1030pm